In a conventional rolling mill, the hot rolled product, e.g., 5.5 mm rod, can exit the last finishing stand at a speed exceeding 100 m/sec. The rod is then guided by an apparatus commonly referred to as a “turn down” along a downwardly curved path into a laying head. The laying head forms the rod into rings which are received on a conveyor where they are subjected to controlled cooling as they are transported to a reforming station.
Conventional turn downs typically employ fixed curved surfaces to guide the products downwardly along the curved paths. A drawback with this arrangement is that such guide surfaces are rapidly eroded by frictional contact with the hot products, thus requiring frequent mill stoppages after only several hours of operation in order to replace worn components.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a turn down apparatus with improved resistance to wear, thus enabling mills to operate continuously for extended periods of time measured in days rather than hours.